And a Happy Friday to you all out there on the Interwebs. It’s a very happy day in our nation’s capital, but no, not because Trump quit or was impeached. After 44 years of mostly heartache, the Washington Capitals won the Stanley Cup Thursday night, beating their “longtime rivals” Vegas Golden Knights (and what a long Cup drought it’s been for the Knights, a whole nine months).

Since my Rangers and the Caps have had playoff battles my whole life I couldn’t quite root for Washington in this series, but I’m happy for Alex Ovechkin, coach Barry Trotz and the organization. There are great hockey fans in D.C. and I’m happy for them, since they’ve waited so long. Good job, Caps.

OK, on with the show. You might have heard the ridiculous kerfuffle coming from the Orange Man in the Oval Office this week, bashing NFL players on the Philadelphia Eagles for not being patriotic, and more nonsense. I thought for a minute about making this whole post about the great, patriotic things NFL players do, like Jermaine Gresham paying this woman’s $50 baggage fee so she doesn’t miss her flight, but it’s June and I thought we were all on a break from the monstrous machine that is the NFL.

But I did want to call out this tremendous accomplishment, first pointed out to me by my sister, of Kansas City Chiefs lineman Laurent Duvernay-Tardif. Last week Duvernay-Tardif completed his required coursework at medical school at McGill University in Montreal and graduated with his class.

That’s right, an active NFL player is now a doctor. Duvernay-Tardif was a 6th round pick in 2014, and each offseason he’s been working toward his medical degree.

He said in interviews after the ceremony he wants to add “M.D.” to the end of his name on his jersey, and it’d be awesome if he did (I’m sure the NFL would find some reason to not allow him to.)

What a wonderful accomplishment. Now you wonder why someone so smart would play a sport (and a position, offensive line) where you get in the head 50 times a game. But hey, I’m sure now that he’s a physician he’ll make sure the Chiefs now have great magazines in the locker room.

**Next up today, I love these surprise soldier ceremonies, and I had to share this one. The Marshfield (Mass.) High School graduation was going along normally enough when student Tyler Solomon stood up to get his diploma and handshake.

Then, in a surprise known to many others but not Tyler, his father, Damon Solomon, currently on his fifth deployment as a U.S. Army seargeant, showed up to greet Tyler.

The look on Tyler’s face at the :14 mark says it all. What a wonderful moment.

**And finally, one small act of kindness from a police officer to another creature. In a driving rainstorm recently in Maryland, officer Sharnese Hawkins-Graham noticed a small box turtle stuck in the middle of the road.

So Hawkins-Graham decided to protect the turtle and divert traffic. A motorist passing by got out and helped, while thanking the officer. The motorist, Carolyn B R Hammett, and her husband helped Officer Hawkins-Graham use shovels to safely move the turtle out of the road, while holding an umbrella over the officer’s head.

Just a nice, small gesture. And the smile on the officer’s face (in the pic at the link) was great, too.